Bitcoin’s Price in 2019: Forecasts and Opinion of Experts

Attention of many people around the world is focused on the Bitcoin price. No one can say for sure, where it will go next year, or moreover in a few years. Some people believe, that the cryptocurrency industry has already reached its maximum, and all that we are waiting is a continuous decline of value. But there are experts who are sure that the maximum marks of BTC is only beginning and we are expecting for the new heights in the future. Well, let’s try to look into the matter and analyze the words of leading financial experts of the world.

1. Analysis of the current situation

As we all remember, the capitalization of the cryptocurrency market reached its historic maximum 831 billion dollars in January 2018. After this, a deep and prolonged correction has started, which partially continues until now. At the time of writing, the market capitalization is 107 billion dollars, the Bitcoin price has fallen in 6 times, and many coins have become cheaper in 10-20 times.

Source: CoinMarketCap

At first glance, everything seems to be bad and prospects are rather vague. But what if we tell you that everything is absolutely opposite and now it is the best time to invest in cryptocurrency? We are ready to back up our words with concrete facts about which very few people talk.

Continuous growth of network`s hashrate. Despite the fact that the price of first cryptocurrency shows negative profitability throughout 2018, the total computing power of Bitcoin network is constantly growing. It means that miners are increasing their production capacity. And it is not about small or medium farms, since their share is negligible on the general background.

Source: https://bitinfocharts.com/

After analyzing this graph, it appears that big miners continue to invest hundreds of millions dollars in equipment. This means that major players continue to believe in further development of the industry, and therefore in future growth of the BTC rate.

Infrastructure development. In 2018, investor`s interest in cryptocurrency faded a little, but this did not affect infrastructure development. Every day, the number of places where you can pay with cryptocurrency is growing (paying taxes in the USA, real estate, online shopping, transport tickets, physical points of sale and more). It is a very good trend, because the more places you can pay with BTC, the more people will be involved in the digital economy.

The acceptance of cryptocurrency at the government level. In 2018, for the first time in 10 years of Bitcoin’s existence, they started talking about it at the international level. If earlier none of the world leaders paid enough attention to this topic, then this year at the G20 summit this issue was put on the agenda. World leaders agreed that it would be pointless to forbid cryptocurrencies and no one would do that. On the contrary, there was decided to develop an international legislative framework.

It’s still possible to become a “pioneer”. If you go to the website bitinfocharts.com and take a look how many Bitcoin wallets are registered currently, it is possible to see the number that does not exceed 23 million. Taking into account that more than 15 million of them are wallets, which balance does not exceed $100. The population of our planet now is about 7.6 billion people. Let’s take 40% of insolvent people (children, pensioners, people who live in a third world, etc.) – it comes out near 4.5 billion people. After comparing these numbers, it appears that there are still very few people who are really involved in the cryptocurrency industry. That means, a global large-scale acceptance of technology does not exist yet. This gives us a chance to become pioneers. After cryptocurrency becomes a commonplace for any person (like, for example, a credit card in our days), we will reap the benefits. Most likely you will hear such expression in future: “Why didn’t I buy Bitcoin in 2018?”.

2. Expert forecasts for 2019-2020

Now let’s see what famous experts say about the near future of Bitcoin, namely about its price.

Mike Novogratz, CEO of Galaxy Digital, believes that the start of Bakkt and Fidelity Digital Assets platforms will affect on entry of new investors into the cryptocurrency market. According to Mike`s opinion, now the most important point of resistance is the mark of $ 3,880. If we overcome it, then the rate may reach $ 9,000 till the new year. The next important mark is $10,000. After overcoming it, the price of BTC 2019 will go up sharply. Novogratz has no doubt that the next year rate of Bitcoin will overcome its historical maximum of 20,000 dollars.

Tom Lee, is one of the leading analysts of Wall Street. Previously, he stated that until the end of 2018, the rate of Bitcoin will overcome the mark of 25 thousand dollars. But after a few months, namely in July 2018, he slightly revised his views and named the new price of Bitcoin 2019 – 22 thousand dollars.

The forecast of John Mcafee is the most bravest of all existing on the market. He believed that by December 2020, the price of one bitcoin will be $1,000,000. Moreover, John is confident in his forecast like no one other. In his view, in the upcoming future, Bitcoin will replace dollar, which will cause huge demand.

3. Conclusion

After analyzing the current situation and the words of industry experts, we can conclude that Bitcoin and cryptocurrency in particular have a great future. Now we are only at the beginning and in the next decade, cryptocurrency will change our life. It should be noted that this article is not a call for investing in cryptocurrency. These are just our subjective thoughts about the future development of the industry. Remember, any investment entails a certain risks.

An infrastructure in the cryptocurrency industry is developing year after year, it helps to create connection between the real and the digital world. In this article we will talk about exchange services that allow to convert both cryptocurrencies one into another as well as exchange them for usual fiat money. After reading this material, you will know which nuances you should pay special attention to when choosing an exchanger, and how such services work. At the end of the article we will name Top 5 cryptocurrency exchangers that have already proven themselves.

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1. What are cryptocurrency exchangers?

This is the case when the name speaks for itself – these are services, where you can exchange digital coins. Exchangers can be:

Offline. They are necessary for work with cash. Many of them also work when connected to the Internet. To use this service, it is necessary to create a request on the site: select the city, amount, currency, desired coin, and enter your cryptocurrency wallet. After that, it`s needed to go to the specified address and pay in cash. It should be noted that such services are very few and they are often concentrated in large cities only.

Online. This is a site, where you can exchange cryptocurrency for other coins, for fiat or vice versa. They are more popular, and they will be discussed in today’s material.

2. The principle of cryptocurrency exchangers work

The work mechanism of such services is extremely simple. A user creates a request for an exchange, after that the system checks on subject of physical possibility of implementing ( existence of a necessary coin reserve). The system makes a transaction after payment confirmation.

Before paying for an application, it`s necessary to know the work mode of the exchanger:

Manual. Each new operation requires a user to re-enter his data, and then it is manually checked by a person, after this user can make a return payment. Such exchange operation is often delayed for several days.

Semi-Automatic. A user also pays for his order, an operator checks it, but all the rest is done by a system. In this case, a operation often takes from 10 minutes to a couple hours. It all depends on the workload and physical capabilities of a particular exchanger.

Automatic. The user is only required to create templates and payment, the system assumes the rest. This is the fastest exchange option, since an operation takes just a few seconds.

As for anonymity, everything depends on a specific operation. For example, if the user exchanges Bitcoin for Monero (or for any other popular coins), in this case the anonymity is not a big problem. In order to convert one coin into another, only wallet`s address and email are needed. Some exchangers may ask to enter a full name, but if the user`s purpose is anonymity, then he can come up with a fictitious name. In case of a cryptocurrency exchange, these data (full name) does not matter at all.

If you need to transfer Bitcoins to a bank card it is completely another thing. Privacy is out of the question, since it is easy to track the movement on a bank card.

3. The main parameters to consider when choosing an exchanger

There is a huge number of exchange services on the market. Which is good, since the users have a wide choice. But it’s no secret that a certain percentage of exchangers (not only cryptocurrency) are scams. For an exchange procedure to go off smoothly, the service, which will be performing the conversion, should be examined thoroughly. We will describe below how a reliable cryptocurrency exchanger should work and look like:

an exchanger must be at least 12 months old;

it is easy to find the reviews about this service on the Internet, there should be at least 90% of positive comments;

an exchanger has a sufficient funds reserve (from 100 thousand dollar and above);

a service works in automatic or at least semi-automatic mode (due to increased volatility, a delay of 24 hours is an unaffordable luxury on the cryptocurrency market);

service works 24/7;

there is a support service, which works around the clock and ready to solve all issues raised promptly;

a service is presented in the popular aggregator sites list, such as YChanger or BestChange

4. Top 5 exchange services for digital coins

1. www.24paybank.com. This exchanger is one of the most popular services on bestchange. The site supports 10 most popular coins, as well as fiat currencies. The service has several thousand positive reviews and has been working for more than one year.

2. www.baksman.org. This is a fairly large exchange service, which is very popular among the users. The exchanger supports more than 20 different payment systems. Its reserve is about 2 million dollars.

3. www.alphacashier.com. This is one of the most old cryptocurrency exchangers, it began its work back in 2012. The service reputation is confirmed by time. There is a large number of different coins.

4. 365cash.co. This service has been successfully operating for about 4 years, and has more than one thousand positive feedback from users. This is a small bitcoin exchanger, since its reserve is only 0.7 BTC, but this is enough for most transactions.

5. bitochek.net. It is possible to make an exchange operation in just a few clicks with the help of this service. The exchanger has been working not for so long, but has already gained trust of many users.

5. Conclusion

There are many cryptocurrency exchangers on the market. In order to make a successful exchange operation, it is necessary to take the choice of a service with full responsibility. There is no need to chase the most profitable rate, as this may eventually lead to a rather sad consequences. It is necessary to check exchangers for the presence of reviews, and it is better to check similar services on aggregator sites, such as, Best Change or YChanger.

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As it has been reported by the Marketwatch, Erik Finman, a teenager who became a millionaire back in the times when Bitcoin cost 20 thousand dollars, gave a very negative outlook for BTC in the future.

“Bitcoin is dead, it’s too fragmented, there’s tons of infighting I just don’t think it will last. It may have a bull market or two left in it, but long-term, its dead,” said Finman.

As for Litecoin, here the teenager is sure that this coin “has been dead for a while”. He also mentioned those coins that, in his opinion, still have a chance at the market, such as Ethereum, ZCash and, surprisingly, Bitcoin Cash.

Although Eric is still very young and not that experienced, the fact that he owned 4 million dollars in BTC in 2011 make his predictions quite reasonable.

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Relatively new blockchain technology is developing quite actively in recent years, which inevitably leads to increase of jobs number in this industry. Considering that, the infrastructure is still not very developed well in this area, it can be assumed that the trend of increased demand for qualified personnel will still remain for many years. In this article we will talk about blockchain specialists, find out who employers are looking for, what average salaries are offered, and in the end we will talk about where to learn this craft.

1. Briefly about blockchain technology

Let us briefly remind what blockchain is, and why many people predict a great future for it? So, in simple words, blockchain is an open (that is, public) registry of data, which is stored in separate blocks and has a chain structure. Each subsequent block stores the information about the previous one. For example, let`s take a usual book, which is divided into separate pages, so after 45, there 46, 47 should go, etc. Attempts to change or delete a block, which has already been entered into blockchain, will immediately be noticed by the network.

The increased security of Blockchain is backed up by data storage. The fact is, that the entire data registry has hundreds of thousands copies (depends on number of miners in network), which are located throughout the world.

2. What experts are now in demand in the industry and how much do they earn?

When it comes to blockchain specialists, most people imagine a highly qualified programmer who knows all the programming languages, Morse code, and the depths of cryptography. But in reality, to be a fairly successful developer, you need to know:

basics of programming;

C ++ language ideally, but this is optional, Python, Java, Golang, etc. will also work.

Having these knowledge and at least minimal experience in programming, one can become a blockchain developer without any particular problems. The wage, in this case, will directly depend on experience, depth of knowledge and a particular company. In Europe and the United States experienced developers can get to $175 thousand per year. But it’s not necessary to be a programmer to work in the blockchain industry. This is not a complete list of vacancies, this young market needs:

Investment Director. It is a key position in any crypto startup, because its main task is to search and work with potential investors. This is a quite difficult job, because now many people are still wary of cryptocurrencies and blockchain as a whole, and they are not in a hurry to invest their savings. The salary depends on the amount of raised funds, from which a certain percentage is given to an investment director.

Marketer, PR manager. As Thomas Macaulay said: “Nothing Except The Mint Can Make Money Without Advertising”. This profession is very relevant absolutely in any field and the blockchain industry is no exception. To succeed in this position, the specialist is obliged to speak several foreign languages, to have experience in international sales. Salaries of the specialists depend on the scope of a project, as well as a marketing record of a marketer.

Bounty manager. The rapid development of the ICO market has led to emergence of brand new professions. This position involves conduction of all processes, interaction and verification of performers for tasks implementation. Salary of these specialists can hardly be called high, it rarely exceeds $1,000.

Crypto analyst. This profession implies the deep knowledges of the cryptocurrency market. An analyst should be able to carry out a fundamental analysis of any coin, and on the basis of this data make his or her own predictions of investments growth. This is one of the most promising areas in the blockchain industry, since the analyst’s wages have no limit. Large investors will be happy to pay a certain percentage of commission to a such specialist for a good tip.

Lawyer. There is literally “a long row to hoe” in the blockchain field for these professionals. The fact is that legislative base here is still at a very early stage of its development and there is still a lot of work to be done in this direction.

3. Where to study for a blockchain specialist?

Higher-education institutions are already training specialists in this direction. A number of leading universities offer introductory courses into blockchain, cryptocurrency, etc.

To master any of the above mentioned professions of the future, you can take online courses on the Internet, the number of which is sufficient now. But when choosing a training program you should be extremely careful and before entrusting your money and time to some “blockchain guru”, read the information about him carefully.

4. Conclusion

The crypto industry differs with a rather rapid pace of development. To work in this area, you must always keep “your eyes open” and be able to adapt quickly to a new circumstances. Every year new professions appear, which offer new opportunities and high wages.

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According to the report of South China Morning Post, Hong Kong businessman was threatened with blowing off the building where his company is unless he sends $20 000 in Bitcoin. The scheme was the same as we reported earlier:

The victim who received a blackmail is the CEO of Network Box, Michael Gazeley. He commented on the situation, stating:

“This looks like the third wave of blackmail emails plaguing the world in the past few years… I have never seen something like this, which sounds like cyberterrorism, in my 20-year career in cybersecurity.”

In addition, he claimed at first he was shocked, then he noticed that there were some grammar mistakes which helped him to understand that the email was not worth believing. It was quite clear that the main target was individual rather than bombing an office. He did not report to the police of Hong Kong as considers that email not credible.

Charles Mok, the spokesman of the IT sector in the Legislative Council of Hong Kong, was abashed by the quality of threats.

He said: “Scammers need to be smarter, they can’t just say in a spam email, ‘You need to pay me or I blow up your office’.”

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Now it is hard to find a person who has never heard of Bitcoin’s existence. But the vast majority of people do not fully understand what it is and how it really looks like. In this article we will discuss the true appearance of Bitcoin, and also find out whether BTC can have physical form.

1. What does Bitcoin look like?

We briefly remind that Bitcoin is the very first cryptocurrency in the world, it was launched in January 2009. This is the first decentralized payment system in the world, in which interaction takes place exclusively between users, and does not require regulation by intermediaries. It works with the help of blockchain technology, which guarantees security of transactions.

The Bitcoin network is a chain of blocks, which store information about every coin transfer in the entire history. Each block has timestamps as well as encrypted information about the previous block. This data is stored on every miner`s computer all at the same time, thus it is impossible to change anything in the registry. So, basically, Bitcoin is just a record in blockchain.

2. Is there a Bitcoin in physical form

It is very difficult for the vast majority of people to imagine something that does not exist in the real world. Some enthusiasts have begun issuing physical Bitcoins for this reason. What is it? The actual Bitcoin coins appear in the form of physical wallets. They are intended for safe storage of coins, as well as for offline payments. There is a wallet`s address that can be found on a coin, which is publicly available, as well as a private key, which is hidden by special hologram.

Source: https://www.coindesk.com/

The first physical coins were issued in 2011, produced by Mike Caldwell. The circulation was 3500 pieces, it is worth saying that the author mined those digital assets by himself. These coins were sold out very quickly, so in 2013, Caldwell released the next generation of physical bitcoins, which had new design.

3. What are the prospects for Bitcoin?

The first digital coin in history keeps leading position for almost 10 years and remains a powerhouse for the entire industry. The very first exchange rate of the coin was 1 dollar for 1.309.03 BTC. We remind that the coin’s rate in December last year was above $20,000, and then started falling down. Bitcoin costs about $3,300 now (according to CoinMarketCap).

No doubts, it is the biggest asset value increase in the history of mankind. Many cryptocurrency experts predict a great future for Bitcoin. Coin emission is limited, mining complexity increases every year, and users base is growing. All these factors will certainly have a positive effect on the cost of the asset in the future.

Bitcoin has one big problem that slows down its development – a small bandwidth. The network is able to perform only 7 operations per second. This It means that the more people will use the system, the longer it will take to wait for transactions confirmation takes to wait for. Sometimes it can take hours or even days.

4. Conclusion

Many people wonder: “How does 1 Bitcoin looks like?” In general, BTC does not exist in physical form, it is just a set of data stored in the blockchain. But the enthusiasts created physical analogs of coins, mostly for collectors. They are physical wallets, made in the form of coins. Bitcoin`s future is not fully defined yet, but the majority of experts believe that the peak of its popularity is still ahead.

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The money is the most genius invention of mankind. During its long history, it has repeatedly changed its conceptual design. And each stage was accompanied by a qualitative leap in the development of human civilization. In this article we will talk in detail about money, its history and future prospects.

1. The main functions of money

The Money is fairly universal tool with the help of which you can perform many tasks.

Circulation tool. In turnover, money is a mediator. In order to effectively perform this function, money should be easy to deal with, and its transfer from one person to another should be fulfilled as soon as possible.

Payment tool.Each product has its own price, money allows to simplify the process of exchange of goods and services significantly.

Accumulation tool. Some of the unused funds can be accumulated for the future, but it is very important to diversify risks and not to keep money in one currency, because, in terms of inflation, its purchasing power in future may significantly decrease.

2. The origin of money and its evolution

The money origin is rooted to the times of primitive people. The development of money can be divided into several stages.

The first money.The money did not exist as such in human civilization at an early stage of its formation, at that time primitive people had barter. The first elementary monetary funds began to appear at the time of the division of labor. Different tribes used the various goods which were available to them as the money. For example, cocoa beans in Mexico, animal skins in Siberia, pearls in South America were used as currency, etc. Salt was another valuable resource.

Metal money. With the development of civilization, money acquires a metallic form. In the VII century B.C. the first coinage appeared. This format of monetary funds becomes very popular all over the world. The primary materials of which were gold, silver, copper and bronze. This type of money significantly increased the sales turnover between people and brought human civilization to a fundamentally new level. During this period begins the accumulation of large capitals.

Paper money. In 910 A.D, in China, the first paper money appeared. The appearance of banks marked the beginning of a new era of market relations. Banks have become major custodians of values. People handed them their money, and received paper certificates in return. This format have become so popular that over the time these certificates began to be considered as money, which we can observe nowadays.

Electronic money. A year of 1991 becomes a critical point in history, this is the year when the Internet begins to function. Banks actively pick up this technology and begin to use it after a couple of years. Digital money is much faster and more secure than paper analogues. They are still the most common type of monetary funds.

Bank cards. The world’s first plastic card was issued back in 1950, it was used in order to pay for dinner in certain restaurants. And only in two years after that, the first bank credit card was issued in the USA.

Digital coins. The history of cryptocurrencies begins in the end of 2008, it was the first time when people heard the word Bitcoin. The main feature of cryptocurrency is the lack of a single center that controls emissions and acts as an intermediary in the course of transactions, digital coins also can be mined, i.e., engaged in mining.

3. Prospects of cryptocurrencies

Some experts predict a total collapse of cryptocurrencies, other experts predict the world recognition and almost the transfer of all the wealth of mankind into blockchain. What does really awaits the cryptocurrency industry in the future? In fact, there is not a single person who will be able to predict its further development by 100%. We can only assume certain scenarios based on certain facts.

It should be noted that a very technological and a universal technology such as blockchain lies at the roots of cryptocurrencies. Potentially, it can be used in almost any field of activity.

Cryptocurrencies have altered the very essence of the money: no one controls them, they can not be banned or blocked.

Even against the background of the deep correction of 2018, large companies, funds and private investors are beginning to be interested in cryptocurrencies.

The governments of the largest countries are developing a legal framework for the market. This will allow to promote cryptocurrencies massively.

Along with that, the mass media is overloaded by bad news which is one of the reasons for the protracted correction. If you look at the cryptocurrency chart in longer term, you can clearly see the liquidity of cryptocurrency assets (20x growth), even taking into account their rollback from peak values by 70-90%.

Source: CoinMarketCap

4. Conclusion

Money is the greatest invention of mankind, they became the catalyst of the progress of human civilization. We are witnessing the formation of a new type of money such as digital coins. Only time will tell whether cryptocurrencies will be able to take a palm of victory and push out paper and electronic money. But it is worth noting that in the long run they have all the chances to do that.